October 20, 2006

ADDED: I just watched it. I wish we'd coordinated our head sizes and lighting. How discordant is that for you? But I like the flow of the discussion. We start out talking about Hugo Chavez's thwarted quest for a seat on the U.N. Security Council, and then we head into the subjects of free speech on campus, virtual reality, reality TV, blogging, and the upcoming elections. It was really cool talking to Dan. I assume you read his blog, but let me point you there anyway.

19 comments:

I have a question: who sets the agenda for bloggingheads? Because it certainly seems as though there is a pre-agreed list of topics to discuss, so is it decided by email beforehand, or do you just kind of get on camera and spar back and forth on the events of the week?

The video was awful. It had to much compression and was so herky-jerky that it was painful to watch. OTOH, even if the video would have been perfect it still would have been a waste of bandwidth. There is no useful information in the video. It's all in the audio.

It would have been better if it was just an mp3. That way I can listen to it on my MP3 player whenever I want instead of being trapped in the room with my computer.

Daniel's point is right, by the way, that all the best blogs are idiosyncratic. His is, and so is this one. Dale - given that they briefly discuss how video is goiung to kill the blogging star, that's an amusing point. ;)

On swearing kids. Anyone who starts swearing and shouting at me just tells me that they're an ignorant twit. That person just lost me and the argument. I also know that I can safely ignore them from now on.

I spent seven years in the Navy and have been sweared at, and chewed-out by, the best. These kids are a bunch of candy-ass, pompous, pampered, jerks. Emotion without thought is a wasted effort. I left the Navy and went to the university to get away from that garbage.

I was annoyed to find the same foolishness at the university. I was even more disappointed at how bad they were at it.

Simon: We select five or six topics beforehand and put them in order, but we feel free to bring in unplanned topics, to change the order, or to drop things. For example, in this one, it wasn't planned to talk about reality television and we moved up the subject of Stephen Bainbridge when it fit in.

Dale: I'm not actually saying I like people swearing, just that the campus environment, if it doesn't have quite a few young people swearing at each other, is not a vital enough free speech forum. I'm critical of administrators who try to create a "respectful" atmosphere.

His thesis that as a good Repub he's voting against the Repubs to punish them for their excesses and to send them a message is akin to a man who discovers that his wife is slowly poisoning him by sprinkling arsenic on his food deciding that an affair with a trollip who says right up front that she intends to strap him down and mainline the aresenic straight into his arteries will punish his wife and send her a message.

I would've thought that a young man of Drezner's credentials would have a little more heft than to indulge that sort of reasoning. Either that, or he's really not all that much of a Repub, something you gently alluded to, Ann.

Hmmm, I actually agreed with Drezner, especially in his comment that gridlock is better than what we have now. The GOP has forgotten why we voted for them in 1994 and will not remember until they actually have lost something. I look at it as sometimes you have to take a step back in order to move forward.

As far as my not being much of a Republican - I'm not. I'm a small government fiscal conservative, something the GOP has ceased to be. The Democrats are just as bad, but as I said gridlock should be an improvement.

I think one of the problems with the iSight is the light. Your images seem a bit washed out and overexposed- the ones from your office seem clearer and the colors more normal. Maybe try changing your lighting a bit?

I think Dan had the right idea sitting back in a comfortable chair. Not only was a he better length away from the camera, but because he seemed more relaxed. There were a few times you changed position and leaned into the camera where I actually felt intimidated. Since I'm not a UW student, I guess I'll have to forgo any complaint. :)

You had the better costume and set, though. Dan had too many earth tones going on, while you had the dark outfit against the lighter background, as well as some interesting colors in that wall hanging.

About the light: in the office there's a ceiling full of fluorescents. At home, it's hard to get enough light at night to film. Normal light comes out the way Dan had it. I assembled a couple lights and tested it at different levels before I picked that.